1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates generally to network management, and, more particularly to network communication control methods and systems with adjustable time slices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In packet switched networks, data is divided into small pieces called packets that can be processed. Generally, a network or a host using the network has a capacity limitation (bandwidth), defining a transmission threshold of data to be transmitted per second. Additionally, network transmission is time slice based. The network transmission is segmented into small time slices, each having a fixed length and a transmission threshold corresponding to the network bandwidth.
In time slice based network transmission, it is determined whether the transmission amount comprising a transmitted data amount within current time slice and a data amount requested to be transmitted exceeds the transmission threshold if a request of network transmission is received. If the transmission amount exceeds the transmission threshold, the request for network transmission is stopped. After the time slice, a new time slice begins, the transmission amount for the new time slice is reset to zero, and the request of network transmission is resumed to perform within the new time slice.
As described, the network transmission is segmented into time slices. Conventionally, a time slice has a fixed length of 1 second. In some cases, a system must wait for an incoming time slice if the transmission threshold of the current time slice is reached. For example, if the system reaches the transmission threshold in 100 ms, it must wait 900 ms for other network transmissions. This situation occurs especially when the network traffic is smooth, causing obviously transmission pause.